southtechweek18-XLR8

Tap into your innate Māori innovation gene and get involved in digital innovation!

This event has already happened!

As the digital space grows, we want to tap into that innate Māori innovation gene that we inherited from our tīpuna since the time they arrived to these shores and get our tamariki, rangatahi and whānau into digital innovation.

Join us at southtechweek18-XLR8, a two-day workshop which aims to harness the potential of young Māori and Pasifika in the digital innovation space by:

Inspiring them to study, learn and work in the digital space, whilst retaining and/or expanding on their cultural heritage

Enabling them to discover available pathways into education and career opportunities in the digital space;

Exposing them to Māori and Pasifika digital innovators, leaders and practitioners who can inspire and support rangatahi

Sharing and tell our unique stories in the digital space on both a global and local stage

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Speakers

Ian holds an LLB from the University of Otago, and was inducted into the New Zealand Hi-Tech Hall of Fame in 2009. In 2010, he was named North & South magazine’s New Zealander of the Year and was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the New Zealand Computer Society. He was named a Companion of the NZ Order of Merit in the 2012 New Year Honours for services to television and business and won the Creative sector of the World Class New Zealander Awards. In 2013, Ian was named Outstanding Maori Business Leader of the Year.

Ira Munn is CEO of Ierospace Industries International, the company that created the Drop – a three-wheeled electric vehicle kit made from recycled plastics. Before this, Ira was a high school social sciences teacher and leader of Team IKE Aerospace in the build of the Seraph aircraft during the 2011 CAFÉ Green Flight Challenge, a competition to build the most energy-efficient airplane in the world. In addition to Ierospace, Ira works with non-profit Accelerating Aotearoa in Otara, South Auckland, sharing opportunities for students to realize their problem-solving, creative and analytical abilities through STEM workshops.

Dr Isaac Warbrick (Ngāti Te Ata, Te Arawa, Ngā Puhi) is Director of Taupua Waiora Centre for Māori Health Research at AUT, where he and his colleagues developed ‘Ko Ngā Haerenga a Manu’ – The Journeys of Manu, an augmented reality app which uses a digital character, Manu, to engage users in the environment, guide you through culturally relevant spaces in South Auckland, and tell the stories of those places. Isaac is also co-director of Augmented Reality Applications (ARA) Ltd, a Māori tech start up focused on using augmented reality, and other technologies, to connect people with the rich culturally features of our environment and provide a pathway to encourage and develop young Māori as leaders in technology.

Jason is of Ngati Kahu, Nga Puhi, and Ngai Tahu descent. After returning from Australia 5 years ago, he took a break from his corporate job to study te reo Māori full time for a year. He wanted to learn to speak Māori but with a job, a family and other commitments, finding the time to get to wananga was difficult. So he started Reobot from his own desire to speak Māori. He wanted to be able to practice every day, and quickly learned that it’s a common problem faced by others.

Maru is the managing director, game producer and designer at Metia Interactive, an award-winning game development studio founded in 2003. Under her leadership, Metia developed SPARX, an animated 3D game, where young people learn life skills to combat depression. SPARX has proven to have a significant positive impact on young people, and has won several awards, including the 2011 United Nations World Summit Awards in e-Health and Environment, and the UNESCO Netexplo Award in 2013. In 2017, Maru was awarded the Innovator of the Year in MCV Pacific Women in Games Awards from Microsoft Xbox and was appointed to the Maori Television Board. In 2018, Maru completed a Master’s Degree in Technological Futures.

Michael is the founder of Code Avengers, the first EdTech company in the world to have a comprehensive suite of digital technologies, teaching and learning resources for students of all ages. Michael has been programming computers since he was 12 years old and for his PhD, he combined his passions for education and computers to build an app to help people read Spanish, which had significant commercialization opportunities including CIA backing to develop it in Russian and Arabic. Michael and his wife Lynnell have 4 children, and he is constantly experimenting with using digital apps and games to improve educational outcomes.

Dr Michelle Dickinson (MNZM) is a passionate researcher and teacher as well as the founder and Director of the social enterprise, Nanogirl Labs Ltd. Her background in Biomedical and Materials Engineering have given her a unique insight into how nature and technology can learn from each other for scientific developments. Michelle was winner of the Women of Influence award for science and innovation in 2016, and awarded the Sir Peter Black Leadership in 2015. In 2014, Michelle won the Prime Ministers Science Media Communication Prize and the NZ Association of Scientists Science Communicators Award due to her science-based TV shows, comedy podcasts and live theatre shows.